The religious man fears, the man of honor scorns, to do an ill
action.
- Joseph Addison

Man is born for action; he ought to do something. Work, at each
step, awakens a sleeping force and roots out error. Who does
nothing, knows nothing. Rise! to work! If thy knowledge is
real, employ it; wrestle with nature; test the strength of thy
theories; see if they will support the trial; act!
- Saint Aloysius Gonzaga

How much easier do we find it is commend a good action than to
imitate it.
- Anonymous

We become just by performing just actions, temperate by
performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.
- Aristotle

Men commonly think according to their inclinations, speak
according to their learning and imbibed opinions, but generally
act according to custom.
- Francis Bacon

All our actions take
Their hues from the complexion of the heart,
As landscapes their variety from light.
- William Thompson Bacon

The firefly only shines when on the wing; so is it with the mind;
when once we rest, we darken.
- Philip James Bailey

Men's actions to futurity appear but as the events to which they
are conjoined do give them consequence.
- Joanna Baillie

Poets and men of action differ: the former yield to their
feelings in order to reproduce them in lively colors, and
therefore judge only ex post facto; the latter feel and judge at
one and the same time.
- Honore de Balzac

Your modest savant smiles as he says to his admirers: What have
I done? Nothing. Man does not invent a force, he directs it.
- Honore de Balzac

The awakenings of remorse, virtuous shame and indignation, the
glow of moral approbation if they do not lead to action, grow
less and less vivid every time they occur, till at length the
mind grows absolutely callous.
- Mrs. Anna Letitia Barbauld

Do not be afraid because the, community teems with excitement.
Silence and death are dreadful. The rush of life, the vigor of
earnest men, the conflict of realities, invigorate, cleanse, and
establish the truth.
- Henry Ward Beecher

The time when you need to do something is when no one else is
willing to do it, when people are saying it can't be done.
- Mary Frances Berry

The activity of the young is like that of rail cars in
motion,--they tear along with noise and turmoil, and leave peace
behind them. The quietest nooks, invaded by them, lose their
quietude as they pass, and recover it only on their departure.
Time's best gift to us is serenity.
- Christian Nestell Bovee